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Object Lesson

Adult Object Lesson: Trinity Sunday

tricycleIt’s A Wonderful Gift! (What Is It?)

If ever there was a Sunday that cried for an object lesson it is Trinity Sunday. On this day we concentrate on a key teaching of Christianity — and one that puzzles even great theological thinkers.

But what objects work?

St. Patrick  plucked a shamrock from the lush meadows of Ireland and talked about the single plant with three leaves. Artists intertwine circles or draw equilateral triangles. 

I always like the image of the tricycle. The three wheels give us balance. The front wheel (representing the Spirit) drives all three and makes an inert, well-balanced vehicle get somewhere.

But here’s a new image for you.

The gift you don’t quite know what to do with.

Think of your own example. It might be something unusual in appearance or difficult to  put together. A puzzle, perhaps.

I think of one Christmas when I opened a small package. It contained a small jar of liquid and a few sticks of wood. I thanked the giver graciously, went home and pondered. I sat it on the kitchen table and looked at it for a while. At last, I called someone at the party whose discretion I trusted and said, “I am sure this is a wonderful gift but I have to confess. I haven’t the slightest idea what it is. Can you tell me? I want to write a thank you note and I don’t know what to say!”

She was so patient with me. The jar contained a scented liquid. You opened the jar and placed a stick in the jar. The stick would draw the scent from the jar to freshen a room.

Ahh! I see!

Now I understood and knew what I was supposed to do with the gift. The “Spirit” had spoken.

These few verses from John are like a gift we don’t quite know what to do with.

Only in this case the giver knows He is presenting us with a puzzle!

Jesus warns his listeners. “You are not ready for this.” There is a puzzling transfer of ownership taking place. It starts with the Holy Spirit’s guidance and voice. Jesus tries to explain. “All that the Father has is mine. He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

  • The Father has everything.
  • The Father  shares everything with the Son.
  • Through the voice of the Holy Spirit, everything is declared to us.

Do you get it? Don’t worry if you don’t. No one really does.

We are still not ready! All we can do is listen to the voice of the Spirit and do our best.

And don’t forget to thank the Giver.

photo credit: Yelnoc via photopin cc

23 May 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Acts 10 and Acts 11:1-18

balloons2

God’s Boundaries/Our Boundaries

Today’s object is a balloon.

The story of Peter’s dream addresses the concept of boundaries and rules in the Church. No wonder it is not one of the more prominent Bible stories.

I like to point out that as described in the preceding chapter of Acts (Acts 10) this message came to Peter at an inattentive moment. Peter was waiting for his host to put dinner on the table. Peter’s best intention was to spend some time on the rooftop “patio” in deep prayer. His intentions were derailed by his human shortcoming. He fell asleep.

No worries! God can use our shortcomings. He came to Peter in a dream. A rather bizarre dream . . . the kind you don’t forget when you open your eyes.

Blankets fell from the sky with all kinds of disgusting animals emptying from them. And God told Peter to kill them and eat, despite the fact that Jewish law forbids it.

God challenged Peter to open his mind and expand his thinking.

We have a way of creating boundaries. Boundaries usually begin as a way of defining who we are. They help us sort out what we believe and the kind of people we want to have around us. We often have no trouble justifying the boundaries we create even in the face of absurdity.

“All Welcome,” as we’ve pointed out before, is a common notation on church signage, but it often comes with unspoken caveats. Those who don’t fit in will know it and disappear. No need to dwell on it.

That many churches are nearly empty might be a sign that we need to expand our thinking.

We create rituals with rules that can change only with divisive confrontation. These rules create boundaries that often blind us to possibility and mission opportunity. Wine or grape juice? Cups or chalices? Contemporary or traditional music? Pastor’s job, women’s job, or men’s job—who is responsible? Should we waste our money reaching people who cannot contribute or should we court families with two incomes?

The big rule on Peter’s mind (perhaps in his subconscious and hence God’s use of a dream) was “Jew or Gentile?”. To open the community to Gentiles meant accepting ways that violated Jewish law and custom. Food was an obvious symbol of the differences but circumcision was among others. It was a problem to sit at the same table!

As you talk about this Bible story, pause now and then in puff into your balloon. Your congregation will watch it expand as you talk about how Peter’s dream led him to greater acceptance and expanded the community of believers.

Discuss God’s message.

“What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

As your balloon is about to pop, end with the thought: We will still create boundaries. It’s human nature. We will still argue about what God considers clean.

This could lead to many discussions on many topics (the age for communion, the role of women, the inclusion of modern customs, accepting diversity, the ordination of homosexuals).

Address what might be on your congregation’s mind.

You can let your balloon pop to make the message a bit more memorable. Or you can ask someone to come up and stick a pin in it.

The message of this lesson can be tied to the gospel message for today. Love one another. Period

photo credit: MildlyDiverting via photopin cc

25 Apr 2013

Adult Object Lesson: John 10: 22-30

Write A Résumé for Jesus

goodshepherdPlockhorstJohn’s Gospel has one major objective. John seeks to define Jesus in a way that people will believe him to be the Messiah or Christ.

Every incident in John’s narrative adds new dimension to this mysterious person named Jesus.

He is a carpenter’s son, part of a well-known but common family. Often he is seen as a rabbi or teacher. The woman at the well calls him a prophet. Son of God? Son of Man? There are attempts to anoint him as King. He teaches. He heals. He raises people from the dead. Who is Jesus?

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes a pronouncement from the portico of the temple used by temple authorities to pronounce judgment. This is a place where people go to have difficult decisions explained to them.

So what Jesus says here —in this important place—may be his big moment.

The excitement must have been palpable. Would he declare himself King of the Jews? Would he use this moment to elevate his position? Would the lucky members of this audience experience an historic moment they will someday share with their grandchildren?

Jesus instead claims one of the lowliest jobs one can ever type into a résumé.

Occupation: Shepherd

Filling out a résumé is something your congregation will have experience doing. Ask them to write a résumé for Jesus. Describe his work experience as a shepherd and how these skills qualify him to be their spiritual leader.

Give them plenty of time to think beyond the obvious and do as little prompting as possible. Adults are capable of applying metaphors. Help them explore the metaphor more fully.

Be prepared for answers such as:

  • Comes from an experienced family
  • Save flock from predators
  • Ability to get rid of predators
  • Can feed flock
  • Can find clear water for flock
  • Keep the flock together
  • Heal the sick or wounded
  • Make each sheep feel wanted
  • Plays with lambs
  • Responsibility to account for each sheep and lamb
  • Seek fresh resources when food and water supplies are low
  • Train helpers when needed

Use a flip chart or white board to record the answers as you fill out Jesus’ résumé.

You might project some art. If you use several images, ask your members which one they would include on the résumé.

We’ll suggest some images tomorrow.

16 Apr 2013

Adult Object Lesson: John 21:1-19

call

Receiving the Call

This week’s Gospel revisits the concepts of call and commission. The structure of the Church today grows from Jesus’ threefold exchange with Simon Peter. The concept of call among clergy can be profound. Pastors discuss with passion the moment or process that brought them to “their call.” The process is a bit fuzzier for lay people and it often comes with less recognition and respect. The concept of call is not limited to clergy. Each person sitting in your church has a call. Some answer it with ease. Some struggle to discern and follow it.  Tell the story of Simon Peter’s call. Remember, Jesus was talking to an ordinary man — a fisherman. He was meeting with him in his place of work—the seaside. Jesus and Simon Peter have a threefold exchange. We view this conversation as atonement for Peter’s threefold denial of Christ as he waited in the courtyard prior to the Crucifixion.

Do you love me? Yes, I love you. Feed my lambs.   Do you love me? Yes, I love you. Tend my sheep.   Do you love me? Yes, I love you. Feed my sheep.

Jesus packs a lot into a few short words. His message to us today is also told in three short words.

Love one another.

Put a person’s name in front of his two-word quote and you have another three-word quote.

Simon, follow me. Joe, follow me. Bridget, follow me.

Talk with people about their sense of call. Listen to their “call” stories. Chances are no one has ever asked them about their “call.” Your object today can be a cell phone. Ask two or three members in advance to leave their cell phones on. Call them right there during your sermon. Tell them you have a biblical message for them and a question. The biblical message: (Person’ name), follow me. The question: How will you follow the Lord? Consider finding ways to recognize the call of lay people. It can only make the Church stronger!

photo credit: Funky64 (www.lucarossato.com) via photopin cc
10 Apr 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Easter

crossThe Imagery of Easter

Ask your adults to name the images of Easter.

A typical list will include:

  • The egg
  • The rabbit
  • Flowers
  • Butterflies
  • Seeds and flowers
  • Lilies
  • Candy

All of these are symbols of new life and growth. Even candy eggs have a surprise sweet filling inside and jelly beans will grow your belly if nothing else.

And there is the symbol of the lamb—the sacrificial lamb.

No shortage of objects for Easter lessons!

But one symbol is missing. Surely someone will name the cross. If they don’t be prepared to point to the cross.

Without Easter, without Jesus’ conquering of sin and death, the cross would mean very little to us. The whole Lenten journey would have evaporated—untold—into history. All those other symbols would be the trappings of pagan celebrations.

CrucifixThe cross on its own is a  symbol of torture and death. The vilest sinners were tortured on crosses. Many of the disciples standing at the foot of the cross would have their turn at torture. We have to think to remember which martyrs died which way.

We would not be likely to hang the symbol of crime, torture and death on the walls of our home—without the Resurrection.

We remember Jesus’ death on the cross, because he beat it. We look to this gruesome symbol with incongruous feelings. 

In remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice, some denominations emphasize the Crucifix. Jesus is depicted in agony on the cross. 

For others, the empty cross is a symbol of Easter. The cross has been overcome.

All the other symbols of Easter, many borrowed from pre-Christian customs, point to the cross — the empty cross — as the foundational symbol of our faith. It is the symbol of hope and expectation.

This topic resonates very differently with adults than with children. Hope is that core feeling inside of us that something in our lives will result in good.

Children hope that good will happen to them—that people will be kind—that their needs and wishes will be met.

Adult hope is often more desperate. 

Will our lives make a difference? Will we accomplish what God intends for us? Will we die appreciated? Does life mean anything? Does death mean anything?

Help your adults think about these things and draw strength today from the Easter story. 

You might close with a hymn written in the 1980s by Natalie Sleeth. It is a simple hymn suitable for all ages. It is a hopeful. Despite its simplicity, adults can embrace it.

Here is a publishing link.

The tune is lovely and simple. You can learn it by listening. Key of G or F will work.

Listen to the tune here. The singer is playing the guitar in the key of G, so you can follow his chording. The sheet music is written in F.

Hymn of Promise

In the bulb there is a flower;
In the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise:
Butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter,
There’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season,
Something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence,
Seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness,
bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future;
What it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season,
Something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning;
In our time, infinity.
In our doubt, there is believing;
In our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection;
At the last, a victory
Unrevealed until its season,
Something God alone can see.

Upper photo credit: fusky via photopin cc
25 Mar 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Jesus Visits Mary and Martha

coffeeIt’s a Matter of Priorities: John 12:1-8

Here is a video link that will help you springboard a conversation about the domestic conflict that results from Jesus’ visit to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

Your adults are surely familiar with today’s gospel story. Jesus comes to visit Mary and Martha who become indebted to him for resurrecting their dead brother, Lazarus.

Mary sits at Jesus feet and anoints his feet with very expensive perfume. At least one disciple is upset. The narrator of this story, John, does not hold back in letting us know how he feels about Judas.

In comes Martha. While Mary has been doting on Jesus, Martha has been preparing to feed and entertain Jesus and his entourage. Dinner for at least 16—no small feat in the pre-appliance age.

Jesus responds with a lesson in values and priorities.

If you can share this video with your members, please do. Show it in church, during fellowship, or at least include a link in your weekly email newsletter. (You do have a weekly email newsletter, don’t you?).

If you can’t show the video, tell the story. Your object can be a cup of coffee — or two cups of coffee—one paper, plastic or styrofoam cups and one more elegant. You might conduct your own experiment and offer an assortment of cups to your group. You might show the video at coffee fellowship.

Note that the professor in this video serves coffee to his guests after listening to a gripe session. He is not unlike Jesus in this regard. The former students were feeling put upon by the world — like Martha.

This story is not so much about right and wrong as it is about priorities. Weave the video’s message with Jesus’s message about how we determine what is important in our lives. Discuss the viewpoints of each key figure in the story—Jesus, Mary, Martha, Judas, and Lazarus. You might also include the author of this gospel, John. He chooses to tell this story for a reason!

Enjoy a cup of coffee.

photo credit: H is for Home via photopin cc

11 Mar 2013

Adult Object Lesson: The Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Father

prodigalToday’s object is the story itself.

The Story of the Prodigal Son is one of the best known of Christ’s parables.

The adults in your congregation are likely to have heard the story hundreds of times. Today, we can think about the story anew by turning the tale inside out.

This is a true story. A church leader traveling to the growing church in East Africa brought this story home.

While, the organized church in the United States is suffering deep and ongoing losses, the church in Africa is growing by leaps and bounds. It is now commonplace for American Church leaders to travel to Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and other East African countries to meet with leaders of the growing church and to experience some of their success.

How is this happening? they ask with some measure of envy.

One African bishop responded, “Let me tell you the Story of the Prodigal Father.”

Huh?

He explained,

“The American and European church came to Africa many years ago with the message of God’s love. You asked us to believe and we did. You were our spiritual fathers. We were your sons and daughters. We believed. 

You went home. We kept on believing the message you brought to us. We shared what you taught us. We grew.

Now your churches are troubled. They have stopped believing. Now you come back to us — your children in faith. You tell us your troubles. We welcome you back. We celebrate your visits. And that’s why we call our story The Story of the Prodigal Father.”

The adults in your congregation who have heard the Story of the Prodigal Son will appreciate this twist in an old biblical story. It will give them something new to think about after hearing the old, old story—one more time.

05 Mar 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Epiphany 3 (Luke 4:14-21)

Tuesday

 

 

Luke 4:14-21

Being Part of Something Bigger 

Stand before your people with your hand on a Bible.

Today’s message corresponds with the political activity of this week.

We inaugurated Barack Obama for the second time.

The oath of office was recited, hands on not one Bible but two, linking this moment, this time with what has come before. Martin Luther King Jr. used one of the Bibles. Abraham Lincoln the other. The lives and vision of these two men shaped our present reality. The next four years may shape a new reality for our nation, the effects of which we will not know, perhaps, for another generation.

What comes next?

The speech. President Obama proceeded to tell the world how he intended to live up to his oath, honor the legacy of the office and his campaign promises.

Jesus is doing the same thing. He has returned to his hometown. He attends his home temple. He reads familiar words and then he puts himself inside those words.

Compare the good things Jesus intends to do as fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy with the types of promises leaders make today.

22 Jan 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Jesus’ Baptism

TuesdayLuke 3:15-17, 21-22  •  Isaiah 43:1-7  •  Psalm 29  •  Acts 8:14-17

Baptism: Water and the Spirit

waterwheelBaptism was not unique to John the Baptist or to Jesus. Ritual cleansing was part of other beliefs in ancient Mesopotamia. John’s following were engaging in a familiar custom — just by different and rather unusual leader.

Then came Jesus. When John baptized Jesus, God added something new to an old custom. He sent his Spirit. Adding Spirit made an old custom new to the point that today baptism is associated with Christians.

Christians are baptized with both the water and the spirit.

Here’s one idea for how you might illustrate this to your congregation.

You might set a kettle to boil while you talk to your congregation this week. You could do this with a whistling kettle right in front of people or you could have a hot plate off to the side with a the kettle rigged to go off just about the time you are making a point about water.

Water is so common. There is no life without it. We drink it, wash with it, cook with, and even have fun with it.

Water at rest is still and peaceful.

Water at rest can also become stagnant and foul.

Water in motion cleanses itself.  Its power can grind grain and feed a village. It can turn turbines and generate still more power. It can destroy what man cleverly builds and admires.

Water combined with spirit is unstoppable. And that’s what makes baptism in Christ so different.

Water and the Spirit grab our attention. (And that’s about when the whistle should go off!)

photo credit: Reini68 via photopin cc

09 Jan 2013

Adult Object Lesson: Epiphany

Tuesday

 

wisemenIsaiah 60:1-6  •  Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14  •  Ephesians 3:1-12  •  Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany falls on a Sunday this year. Christmas included only one Sunday this season. We’re betting many in your congregation missed it!

This Sunday is a celebration of the arrival of the three kings. The symbolism of the three kings is vast. It wasn’t by accident that the story of Christ’s birth includes the interruption of an undesignated number of truth seekers from unnamed parts of Earth. From the very beginning, the birth of Christ was a story meant for all mankind.

Tradition has decided that three kings came. The Bible is not specific. Three is a great number for storytellers. It gives their story a chance to rise and fall and is not so many that people can’t remember. Among the gifts they brought (yes, there were more) were three named items: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

For today’s object lesson sermon, wrap three small gifts. One should contain a small cross. Another should have a candle. The third should have a match.

Ask three congregation members to open the gifts one at a time. You can decide which order will work well with your message, but here are suggestions of what they might mean in your sermon.

The cross: a reminder that God’s gift to us was his Son who would be sacrificed for our sins.

The candle: the light of the world (light being a symbol of Epiphany).

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

The match: the spark, the spirit, the need for the faithful to do something with the gifts bestowed upon us.

We are reminded that one of the unnamed gifts of the Magi was the journey. The Magi went to great effort just to get to the bed of the baby Jesus. The journey was like striking the match. It set the story still told today in motion. The light from their match (or star) has never burned out.

photo credit: Jenn and Tony Bot via photopin cc

01 Jan 2013